Chase: Roman

waited, wondering what it would be like for Judge to realize, when he heard Chase's voice, that the tables had turned. Had been turned. This had been no accident of fate, but the result of hard work and more than a little cleverness.
        No one answered Monroe Cullins’ phone.
        ‘It could be that Judge is here, watching the building.’
        ‘And it could mean the guy is just out buying the newspaper or tending to an errand of some sort.’
        ‘Try the other one.’
        He put the phone down, looked at Richard Linski's number, picked the receiver up and dialled.
        Again no one answered.
        ‘Damn!’ Glenda said.
        Chase wiped his hands on his slacks, which she had pressed for him an hour earlier. ‘We'll just have to wait. We'll try again, around noon, see if either one comes home for lunch.’ His hands had left dark splotches of perspiration on his slacks.
        Glenda passed the next hour trying to read, curled up in one of the velvet-covered easy chairs, her long legs tucked under her. Chase decided to read too, but found himself prowling the length of the bookshelves in the corridor, picking out one title after the other, only to replace it and go on. He felt as if he were looking for one special book, one certain topic, though he had nothing in mind. Once he thought he was looking for glass dogs that might be hidden behind the books.
        At eleven the telephone rang.
        ‘I'll get it,’ Chase said.
        ‘What if it isn't him?’
        ‘Who else?’
        ‘My mother, perhaps. Or someone from work.’ She got up and went to the phone and stood over it, watching it ring. She said, ‘No, I'll have to get it myself.’
        ‘Go on, then.’
        She picked it up. ‘Hello?’ She smiled, placed a hand over the receiver. Her smile looked as if it had been hammered in a sheet of tin, stiff and beginning to rust. ‘Mother,’ she whispered.
        He went back to the bookshelves and finally chose a picture history of erotic art. He didn't expect to be aroused just then, but at least there wasn't much reading to it.
        Glenda's mother kept her on the phone fifteen minutes. When she hung up, she said, ‘Mother wondered how ill I was.’
        ‘How'd she know you called in sick?’
        ‘Phoned me at work to tell me something; they told her.’ She went back to her chair and picked up her book. ‘Could we call those two now?
        He looked at the wall clock just inside the hallway. ‘Wait a little while yet.’
        ‘I guess you're right,’ she said. In the next half-hour she lighted and put out four cigarettes, though she smoked none of them.
        Neither of the men was home when they called at noon. ‘We'll try again at three,’ Chase said.
        They played cards for a while, took a bath together that did not lead anywhere erotic, watched a bit of afternoon television and tried reading again.
        Neither of the men answered his phone at three.
        Nor at five-thirty.
        ‘I think I'll crack apart if we don't get hold of them soon,’ Glenda said. ‘I'm beginning to think crazy things - like maybe both of them are Judge.’
        ‘I know what you mean,’ Chase said. ‘I was looking for glass dogs in your bookshelves a while ago.’
        ‘Glass dogs?’
        Before he could explain, the telephone rang. ‘Your mother has already called, and it's too late to be someone from work.’ He picked up the receiver and said hello.
        ‘You can't stay inside forever,’ Judge said. ‘Sooner or later, you have to come out.’
        ‘Why don't you come up and get us?’ Chase asked. ‘That would solve your problem.’
        Judge laughed. ‘You continually underestimate me - or were you only joking? Anyway, I only called to let you know I intend to take a break from the vigil, eat some supper and sleep a bit. You'll go unobserved for a while. It's perfectly safe to run out and stock up on milk and bread.’ He started laughing again, and he required a long while to stop.
        Chase said, ‘You're pretty sure of yourself, aren't you?’
        ‘And why not? I have all the time in the world; I can wait weeks for the proper moment.’
        In the hours they had been waiting, he had had time to think about what to say to Judge if he should call again. Now it was almost like going through a printed script. ‘Did you properly research Eric Blentz's past before you killed him?’
        Judge was